Matt Cook’s Workshop

After a busy afternoon renovating the kitchen I sat down and was surfing the web when my wife holds up her iPad and goes “What about this then?” She then shows me a picture of a 1968 Wolseley 1300.

Described in as ‘too good a condition to break but a non- runner’,
I offered him a bit less than his asking price and soon became the proud owner of the car. I now had to figure out how to get a non-runner home.

Whilst waiting for parts to turn up I got stuck into the aesthetics of the Wolseley and polished up the 40-year-old paintwork. Two days later, here goes the finished efforts. The engine is back together with a new head gasket after a quick look inside after spotting a water leak down the side of the block. Now all that remains is to sort the brakes, clutch, a tiny bit of rust and getting the hydrolastic suspension pumped up as it is currently riding 25mm lower than factory spec.

Well, it’s coming up to two years since bringing him home and starting to get him back to road-going specifications. The tiny bit of welding led to a bit more, but not as much as there could have been.

In the process of getting him back on the road I soiled out some of his history, but as I don’t have the original ownership papers it is patchy in places.

The more interesting repair to do.  After a couple of false starts, I managed to form the shape I wanted and weld it in.

He was sold new in Dunedin in 1968, according to his “Passport to Service” booklet, which I still have. He is a very early Mk2 and wears some Mkl chrome trim as he was made in the changeover period between the two. BMC practice at the time was to use up all existing parts before putting any updates down the line. He is also a single carb. 1275cc, manual gearbox car and as such probably shouldn’t exist. As a consequence, I have been told this makes him quite rare and in the UK quite sought after.

Typically Wolseley plank of walnut dashboard. I saw the steering wheel on Trade Me and couldn’t resist. The original was cracked and worn, but I still have it so it can be reinstated if need be.

The view from the passenger side.

After many years’ service by what I suspect was now an elderly couple he was sold on to a young woman in Dunedin who used him daily and kept him in good repair. I have spoken with her and got a lot of information about him from when she had him. The only reason she sold him was she had a young family by then, and he lived outside and she could see him deteriorating before her eyes.

He was then sold on to another owner in Mosgiel and there the trail goes cold. He was deregistered in 2009 until I picked him up in Tapanui. The person I picked him up from had bought him with the intention of putting him back on the road but had never got around to it. Fast forward to August 2019 and he was finally back on the road, still wearing his original black number plates.

Now he was back on the road we attended as many rallies as we could with son Ryder navigating and Dad providing commentary and navigational support. The more he was used, the more I decided how much fun he was to drive, although I did have to be careful jumping back into the Commodore and remember that a 3.8 litre ex-Buick V6 has way more shove than a 1.3 litre BMC A series.

The 127See B\fC “A ” series engine, after a good service and now what amounts to a freshen up, seems to he still quite a strong wee’ engine.